Sitecore support service description

This article describes the eligibility, scope, service levels, and other details of Sitecore's support offering.

Overview

Sitecore's core support offerings consist of two levels of support service: Standard Support and 24x7 Premium Support. These support services provide increasing levels of responsiveness, from three business days for low priority problems, down to as little as one hour for critical issues, and varying hours of coverage.

Access to Sitecore support is typically provided to a Sitecore Solution Partner on the customer's behalf. This ensures that experienced and knowledgeable support personnel are available to provide direct support of the solution.

Customers with Sitecore Certified Developers with an active Sitecore Maintenance Program are also provided access to Sitecore support.

In addition to these support services, Sitecore provides a number of resources for self-help as well as access to professional expert services, such as training, technical consulting, and business optimization services. Further details of these resources can be found in the Additional Sources of Help section of this document.

If access to the Sitecore Support Portal has not been granted as part of the initial Sitecore on-boarding or training process, ensure the prerequisites below are met and contact your Sitecore Sales Representative or your regional Sitecore office.

General prerequisites

To have access to the Support Portal the following prerequisites need to be met:

A user must represent an active Sitecore Customer, Sitecore Partner, or a Sitecore Affiliate company.

User account must be registered for a specific named individual. Generic or shared user accounts are not allowed.

User account must be registered using the business email address. Personal email addresses such as @gmail.com or @yahoo.com are generally not allowed.

Access levels

On Support Portal, the following levels of access can be provided:

Access to Support Cases

Read-Only Access

Access to Cloud Services

Access to Support Cases

Gives a possibility to create and edit cases on the Support Portal. Also, gives permissions to see the Cloud Requests.

Following prerequisites must be met:

A user had to pass Sitecore Certified Developer exam.

A user must be able to provide a valid Sitecore License associated with an active Sitecore Maintenance Program.

Read-Only Access

For users without the valid Sitecore certification but who want to track the status of their colleagues' support cases, read-only access can be granted upon request. Users with that type of access can see Cloud Requests as well.

Access to Cloud Services

Please refer to the following article for details regarding the access to Cloud Services: /articles/235927

Access to Support Cases - Exceptions

For Sitecore Customers with an active Support contract valid who do not have any users with appropriate Sitecore Developer certification, it is highly recommended to establish relationship with the Sitecore Implementation Partner and/or to obtain in-house Sitecore Certified Developer capabilities.

If such a setup is temporary not available, access to support cases can be granted to a single non-certified customer representative. Such an exception is only possible for users who have full administrative access to the Customer's Sitecore environment and is a subject to the user carefully following Sitecore Support Best practices documented at https://kb.sitecore.net/articles/004553.

For Certified Developers who are implementing Sitecore projects in a freelancer or independent contractor capacity, it is possible to provide access to support if a Certified Developer is able to confirm their relationship with a specific Sitecore partner or customer in one of the following ways:

If a Certified Developer is able to provide personal email address with the corresponding company's email domain name.

If a Certified Developer is able to provide confirmation from the company's representative of the ongoing relationship with this company.

Account sharing

Every Sitecore user account is assigned to an individual and must not be shared with other people. Accessing the Sitecore Support Portal with another person's account is a violation of Sitecore's security policy.

How to see other contacts from the same company having access to Support Portal

On the Support Portal homepage menu, click My Colleagues, as shown in figure below.

Please note that only Server-side JSS components are supported by Sitecore via normal support channels. Client-side JavaScript JSS components are open source, and therefore not supported by Sitecore Support. More information regarding the Client-side JSS components support can be found here:https://jss.sitecore.com/help

Also, taking into account the JSS framework flexibility and customizability, it is important to draw the border between Sitecore-produced parts and the custom parts of the solutions, that were built using JSS. Because of that, we support only scenarios, that can be reproduced using the basic JSS project (produced by JSS CLI) and a clean Sitecore XP instance with the installed JSS package.

To help customers manage this end-of-life transition and understand the role that Sitecore can play in helping customers use the latest Sitecore platforms and technologies, Sitecore utilizes three support phases as part of the Sitecore Support Lifecycle applicable to all commercial Sitecore products.

Mainstream Support Phase

These are the latest products or product versions eligible for the full scope of support services provided by Sitecore.

Extended Support Phase

These are older products or product versions that are no longer eligible to be Mainstream Support products. Ideally, customers will migrate to a newer product version before a product goes into Extended Support. However, as this is not always possible, Sitecore provides Extended Support as a solution to making sure your Sitecore products remain secure and supported on the condition of production issues.

Sustaining Support Phase

These are products or product versions that are no longer eligible to be Extended Support products. In rare situations when customers are not able to migrate to the latest product versions before the products are no longer eligible to be Extended Support products, Sitecore provides Sustaining Support as a stop-gap solution for getting limited assistance with production issues and access to online documentation.

Standard Support is designed to help Sitecore Certified Developers to stay on track with projects and production environment support commitments. Standard Support provides online portal assistance only, where developers can create, update, and track support cases.

The hours of operation for Standard Support are normal business hours as defined in the location where the Sitecore license was purchased.

The expected maximum response time for Standard Support cases varies from one to three business days depending on the issue severity.

Sitecore provides support in the English language globally, and in Japanese for customers located in Japan.

24x7 Premium Support

24x7 Premium Support is intended for customers that need enhanced response time for regular support issues, as well as round-the-clock support for business-critical situations.

24x7 Premium Support is available as an optional extra service to all Sitecore customers on the Sitecore Maintenance Program.

The hours of operation for 24x7 Premium Support for Critical and High severity issues are 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

SLA

For every support issue and depending on the Support Program associated with the end customer, Sitecore determines the appropriate severity level and accompanies it with expected response times and resolution standards.

In addition to the Support Portal, Sitecore provides a range of online resources, training, and services. This section outlines some of those resources and provides guidance for locating further information.

Sitecore training addresses the learning needs of all types of Sitecore users, from developers and administrators, to business users and marketers.

We have training centers around the world where we run regular public courses. We also provide private, on-site training for customers and partners.

Course availability and delivery options vary from region-to-region. Please contact your local Sitecore office for details of available courses, or check training dates on the Sitecore website – www.sitecore.com/training –where you can also register to attend courses.

Professional Consulting Services

Sitecore's Professional Consulting Services are designed to provide Sitecore Solution Partners with deep technical skills and experience to support project success.

Designed to work with project teams, these services are focused on providing implementation guidance and technical assistance via a series of reviews, checkpoints, and practical services.

Professional Consulting Services are available for all Sitecore Solution Partners but can be especially relevant for organizations new to working with Sitecore. Many of these services build on the knowledge gained from Sitecore Developer Training by communicating best practices and real-world knowledge of implementing Sitecore early in the partner relationship, enabling success from your very first project.

For further details, please speak to your local Sitecore representative.

Business Optimization Consulting Services

Sitecore's Business Optimization Consulting Services focus on enabling partners to maximize the return on investment for their customers by enabling them to generate significant, quantifiable business value using the Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform.

Rather than focusing on the technical aspects of implementing and using the Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform, Sitecore Business Optimization Services focus on establishing the digital maturity of the customer organization, identifying where the customer would like to be and then developing practical plans for achieving that vision.

For further details, please speak to your local Sitecore representative.

Sitecore Community Forum, Sitecore Blogs, and More

The Sitecore Community Forum is an active online community of Sitecore users. This forum offers a wealth of shared experiences among the many Sitecore certified developers worldwide, with fresh and historical insight available 24x7. Access the Sitecore Community Forum through https://community.sitecore.net/.

There are multiple Sitecore-related blogs and other information resources available on the web and driven by the Sitecore community. Some of the popular locations include technical Sitecore blogs at www.sitecore.net, as well as the community-driven information at stackoverflow.com: